


Waiting on Loving

by heyHEYOhSorry



Series: ColdWestAllen Week '18 [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1950s, F/M, M/M, Married Iris and Leonard, US Race Relations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-18 11:30:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14851913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heyHEYOhSorry/pseuds/heyHEYOhSorry
Summary: Barry falls in love with married couple Iris and Len in the 1950s.For ColdWestAllen Week, Day 1: Historical





	Waiting on Loving

 

“He’s back, Len.” Iris calls from behind the diner counter the moment Barry walks into Ester’s.

Leonard sticks his head out from the kitchen door. “We haven’t scared him away?” Len teases.

“You say that every day,” Barry says, walking behind the counter to greet Iris with a kiss.

“Did anyone follow you?” Iris asks him softly.

Barry shakes his head. Like always he made sure to use the back roads on his drive into the city. It wouldn’t be good for either of them if Barry were to be spotted in the Southside of Central City. Especially, with the cargo bed of his truck filled with equal rights picket signs.

 -- --

Barry hadn’t plan to land himself in the middle of the Civil Rights movement.

Growing up on a farm on the far outskirts Central City, Barry had never been involved in politics. Living with his Uncle Eobard didn’t allow for discussions about race and discrimination in America. Eobard didn’t even tolerate “I Love Lucy” to play on their small black and white television and was still protesting the MLB after the Brooklyn Dodgers drafted Jackie Robinson.

Barry had never had the radical views of his uncle. It all seemed so far away from his small town where there wasn’t a single person of color. That all changed when the Snart car broke down on the side of the road.

Barry had been on his way back from the market, when he saw them.

They were beautiful, beautiful people by themselves, and the perfect couple together. He knew it the first time he saw them. Iris looked perfect with her black hair pulled back under her Juliette cap, and Len was a dream gentleman dressed in his brown sports coat and slacks. But overall it was the two of them together, how perfectly beautiful they looked that drew Barry towards and helped them get off the road before a more “conservative” townie found them.

Barry housed them in his barn for two nights while their car motor was fixed.  And although it was only two days, he knew while he watched Iris and Len drive away that his life would never be the same.

 --

“Who would suspect a boy this white?” Leonard drawls, stepping to Barry from behind, sandwiching Barry in between him and Iris.

Barry couldn’t help but sigh and relax into Leonard’s arms. Leonard chuckled at his reaction. Barry wasn’t even embarrassed anymore. It was no secret that he had fallen head first in love with the couple.

\--

He had tried to go back to his everyday life on the farm. He threw himself into tending the animals and spending time with Patty Spivot, a good girl from a respectable family. Yet every night, he found himself thinking of Iris and Len. Of the late-night conversations in the barn. Of the feeling of belonging he felt with the newly married couple that he hadn’t felt since his parents had died.

“Just give him a chance,” Iris had pleaded to Leonard. When Barry had caved, and taken the unexpected trip to _Ester’s_ , the diner Iris and Snart owned in the Negro area in the city.

“I’m glad you’re here.” Iris whispered, as she guided Barry to a booth, “I felt it too.”

And that was all Barry needed to know that he made the right decision.

 

Barry tried not to call too much attention to himself during the day. He liked his lone booth in the back, watching Iris as she filtered throughout the diner, enjoying their mini conversations whenever the diner had a lull.

Len hadn’t been as welcoming. He protested Barry's presence, concerned about him and Iris’s reputation.

“We'll always be Negroes.” Len said one night while Iris was in back cleaning up the kitchen.

“I don’t care,” Barry protested, tired of Leonard not understanding that he loved them both even if Leonard was determined to hate him.

“Well you need to, because unless anything changes Iris is never going to be safe, especially around a white boy like you.” Len combated.

That was when Barry had joined the movement.

\--

“Did you hear the news?” Iris whispers into Barry’s chest.

Even far from Washington D.C, the news of Mildred Jeter, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, marriage had spread throughout the news.

“Doesn't mean that they'll let us marry." Len says, "But it gives us hope."

Barry nodded, warm in between the people he loved, and hope was all they needed.


End file.
